Django 2.0: TextInput in ModelChoiceField shows id instead if value - django

Question

I changed ModelChoiceField to be shown as a TextInput.
I have a field named 'filename' of this type: models.ForeignKey('Filename', on_delete=models.SET_NULL, null=True, blank=True) in a class as follow:
models.py
class Event(models.Model):
name = models.CharField('Name', max_length=100, blank=True, default='')
filename = models.ForeignKey('Filename', on_delete=models.SET_NULL, null=True, blank=True)
class Filename(models.Model):
name = models.CharField('Name', max_length=50)
def __str__(self):
return self.nome
This is part of my 'forms.py' I use show form in frontend after defining the template (myappname/templates/myappname/event_edit.html)
forms.py
class EventEditForm(forms.ModelForm):
def __init__(self, data=None, *args, **kwargs):
if data is not None:
data = data.copy()
if data['filename']:
f, f_created = Filename.objects.get_or_create(nome=data['filename'])
data['filename'] = m.id
super(EventEditForm, self).__init__(data=data, *args, **kwargs)
self.fields['filename'] = forms.ModelChoiceField(queryset=Filename.objects.all(), widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control', 'value':self.instance.filename}))
self.fields['filename'].required = False
class Meta:
model = Event
fields = ['name', 'filename']
and this is my event_edit.html:
<form method="post" class="form-horizontal">
{% csrf_token %}
{% for field in event_form %}
<div class="form-group form-group-lg">
<label for="{{ field.id_for_label }}" class="col-sm-2 control-label">{{field.label}}</label>
<div class="col-sm-6">
{{ field }}
</div>
<div class="col-sm-4">
{{ field.errors }}
</div>
</div>
{% endfor %}
<div class="form-group">
<div class="col-sm-10">
<button type="submit" class="btn btn-primary btn-lg center-block">Save</button>
</div>
</div>
</form>
The problem is that if I override ModelChoiceField to be a TextInput the 'filename' field shows id instead of showing field name.
Otherwise, If I leave it as a Choice Field it correctly shows value instead of id.
How can I solve this issue?

Answer 1

Based on your comments and the code in EventEditForm, you want a form that will:
display the Event.name and the linked Filename.name
use the submitted name to update Event.name
use the submitted filename to lookup or create a Filename and update Event.filename
This should work:
class EventEditForm(forms.ModelForm):
"""
Calling form.save() will:
* update the Event.name
* update the Event.filename with a Filename instance
found or created using the supplied name
"""
fname = forms.CharField(
label='Filename',
required=False,
widget=forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
)
class Meta:
model = Event
fields = ['name',]
widgets = {
'name': forms.TextInput(attrs={'class': 'form-control'}),
}
def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
super(EventEditForm, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
self.initial['fname'] = self.instance.filename
def save(self, commit=True):
instance = super(EventEditForm, self).save(commit=False)
cleaned_fname = self.cleaned_data['fname']
if cleaned_fname:
f, f_created = Filename.objects.get_or_create(name=cleaned_fname)
instance.filename = f
else:
instance.filename = None
if commit:
instance.save()
return instance